


Beachside Hamster Games

by QuagmireMarch



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Approaching Crack Fic, Fluff, M/M, mer!Phichit, merperson au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28600110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuagmireMarch/pseuds/QuagmireMarch
Summary: Phichit misses a lot of things from the human world. He tried to tell himself he misses hamsters the most.
Relationships: Phichit Chulanont/Emil Nekola
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12
Collections: YOI Rare Pair Week 2021





	Beachside Hamster Games

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 2 of the Rare Pairs Week. Theme was Gifts/Surprise. Yes, I'm a day behind. I'm working on it.

Phichit hadn’t been born a mermaid. Merman? Mer-person? Not important. What mattered was that he’d had a whole life before his ship sank into the sea, leaving him in sudden possession of gills and a tail. And that life had included hamsters.

It’d included other things, like family and friends and obligations, but having been living under the waves, apparently unaging, for over one hundred and seventy years, he’d long made as much peace with those losses as possible. Plus, it hurt, dwelling on the loved ones he’d never see again.

Pining for hamsters hurt less.

Now, ever the optimist, Phichit tried to find alternatives. He hung out with seals and otters and found octopi to be surprisingly cuddly. But, it wasn’t the same. And the other mers weren’t much help. Born as aquatic, with tails like dolphins or sharks, their colors the muted grays of the waters around them, they found Phichit with his scarlet beta fish tail rimmed in scarlet unfathomable. Or so the polite ones told him. The impolite ones called him exhausting and weird, and the flat out mean ones whispered freak when he wandered through.

Then there were the mers that felt him an abomination to be hunted and killed. Phichit met that group later on than the rest, but they were one hundred percent responsible for his current solitary lifestyle. A lifestyle that enhanced his need for fuzzy balls of companionship to intolerable levels.

Which is how he’d ended up posing for pictures on the beach. It got him close to dogs, which, while inferior to hamsters, were something. Oh, and people. To talk to. Which Phichit knew he desperately, desperately needed. Even if it came at the cost of pretending to be a weirdo in a suit busking—was it busking when you just took pictures—for tips on the beach and having his fins tromped on by little kids.

He’d made fifteen dollars, thirty-two cents, and gotten five pretty shells. The money he’d leave somewhere for others to find. He’d keep the shells. His cave always needed a little color. No dogs today, though, and nothing else pet-able, not even a sandpiper or gull. Phichit started making his way back into the water. A few showy poses and then he’d slip under the waves and return to the depths.

Phichit wiggled, turning towards the water, but before he really got moving, a man came running across the sand. Dressed in yellow and orange trunks, lean, with a hipster beard along his jaw and the barest wisp of mustache, he looked a bit like someone gave sunshine form and a hang-over.

“Hey!” Ray of Light jogged over to Phichit. “Are you the guy that does the mermaid pictures?”

Phichit looked down at his tail, then back up to the guy. “No,” he said completely deadpan.

The man blinked, glanced at his tail, and quirked an eyebrow. “Oh. Well, that’s too bad because I have to do this photo shoot for the local shelter, and I heard this guy liked--”

“I’ll do it!” Phichit reached out with playful grabby hands. “Make with the cute fuzzies.”

Laughing, the man slid down to sit in the sand next to Phichit before offering his hand. “Emil Nekola.”

“Phichit Chulanont.” He shook the hand quickly. “Now, tell me about all the adorableness you need me to play with.”

“Well,” he hesitated slightly. “I know you’ve mostly worked with dogs, but this is a small animal shelter so it’d be mostly exotics. Ferrets, bunnies, rats. That kind of thing.”

“Hamsters?” Phichit should have been embarrassed his voice came out in such a breathy, longing whisper, but it’d been literally over a hundred years since he’d _seen_ a hamster, much less held one.

Emil laughed, the sound bright and sparkling. “We’ve got tons of hamsters, yeah. So, you’ll do it?”

Phichit nodded hard and fast enough to prompt a headache. “Can we start now?”

“I don’t have anything with me right this second. Tomorrow morning, say, eight, okay?”

“I’ll be here!” Phichit’s tail twitched in excitement as he beamed at the man next to him. “You have no idea how much I love hamsters.”

Emil chuckled, the sound deep and dark like rich chocolate. “I think I have some clue. You need a hand back into the water?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Okay, well,” Emil stood, his blue eyes merry and smile bright, “tomorrow then.”

Phichit nodded and watched him walk away. It wasn’t until much later, back in his cave that he realized how strange Emil’s offer to help had been. Not, ‘you need help getting up’ or ‘want a hand with moving in that costume.’ No, he’d specifically asked about getting Phichit to the water. Like Emil had known Phichit belonged there. Like he actually believed Phichit might be a merman.

Of course, he might have just heard how Phichit always ended his photo sessions posing in the water. That made more sense than some random stranger bearing hamsters _knowing_ about him, right? Right?

Answers didn’t coalesce from thin air, no matter how hard Phichit hoped they would, but eventually, he did sleep. And he dreamed of fuzzy hamsters with blue eyes and odd little beards.

##

Phichit’s waiting on the beach at quarter to eight. He’s positioned himself next to a rock that in partially in the water. Just in case. Here, if he has to flee, he can hoist himself over the boulder and into the waves.

He’s really hoping it doesn’t come to that. He wanted to see the hamsters.

Emil arrived at eight exactly, coming over a sand dune like he’d just popped into existence at that moment. He carried a large cage with him, and a fancy-looking camera hung over his neck. “Phichit!” He tried to wave, nearly dropped the cage, stumbled while catching it. “Oops.”  
  
“You okay there?” Laughing, Phichit reached out for the cage as soon as Emil got close enough. Five sets of adorable little eyes looked out at him. All hamsters, all different colors and sizes. Phichit’s fingers itched to pet them.

“Fine, fine!” Emil laughed again as he handed the cage to Phichit. “Careful of the black one. He bites.”

“I’ll be--” Phichit stopped. He’d glanced up as he accepted the cage and Emil’s eyes had, for just a second looked...wrong. Flickering like flame. Closing the cage carefully, he hoisted himself up on the rock, prepared to run. “You’re not human are you?”

Emil snorted. “No more than you are.” He pulled his camera from around his neck. “We gonna do this or not?”

Phichit blinked, looked at the ocean waves, back to the cage of hamsters. Emil hadn’t moved closer, hadn’t made any signs of being threatening. But still…

“What are you?”

“Eh,” Emil shrugged, but he looked up and considered, seeming to take the question seriously. “A genie, maybe. Except I don’t have a bottle or anything. I just...happen along when good people really, really want something.”

“So, what, you popped into existence to let me pet hamsters and then you’ll go away again?” Phichit reached for the cage again, pulling out a particularly fluffy tri-colored ball of fur. “And what, now you own my soul or something?”

The camera clicked. “What? Is this like that legend that photos steal your soul? Because, no. All I own is the copyright to these pictures.” He took another couple shots. “Also, I exist regardless. When I’m done here I’ll go get coffee, pick up my shift at the grocery story, maybe watch some Netflix tonight. I just knew someone _here_ needed something, and that I suddenly owned six dozen hamsters.” He put the camera down, trying to look upset, but mouth twitching to smile. “Seriously, Phichit, six dozen? My apartment doesn’t even allow pets.”

“Where are the rest?” Phichit pulled two hamsters out, letting this fun along his arms. “There are definitely not six dozen in that cage.”

“Home. You can come see them at some point.”

  
“You happen to live on the seashore, because you might have noticed I have certain restrictions.” The orange and white hamster ruffled through Phichit’s hair and made him laugh. “Also, kind of presumptuous to invite a stranger home, don’t you think?”

Emil nudged Phichit’s tail with a foot. “Less talking, more posing. We won’t be strangers forever, right?”

Phichit grinned. He liked Emil. The man was bubbly and happy and Phichit had missed just talking to people. Mostly the humans on the beach took their photos and left, no small talk. They certainly didn’t bring him little furry balls of joy. “Hey, Emil,” Phichit grinned wickedly, “can I tell you a secret?”

Emil raised an eyebrow and waited with an eager look as he leaned down.  
  
“What I wanted—it wasn’t really about the hamsters.”

“I know.” He let his gaze trail from top to bottom of Phichit’s form. “But, I had to start somewhere.” He gently collected the hamsters from their various perches and returned them to the cage. Then he took Phichit’s hands and pulled him to his feet.

Feet? What? Phichit’s eyes went wide as he looked down. At his legs. Kind of pale and scrawny in the red and gold swimsuit he wore. But definitely legs, with feet. There. On him. “I...what?”

Emil winked. “So, about that seeing the rest of my hamsters. You in?”

“Yes!” Phichit let Emil hold the cage so he could kick up sand the whole way off the beach.


End file.
